Saudi Aramco’s 2019 initial public offering was the largest in history at the time, raising about $25.6 billion.
Saudi Aramco began trading on the Saudi Stock Exchange, known as Tadawul, in December 2019. The offering sold a small portion of the state-owned oil producer while giving public investors access to one of the world’s largest energy businesses.
The company’s enormous oil reserves, production capacity, and strategic importance helped make it one of the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization. On its second trading day, Saudi Aramco briefly reached a valuation of about $2 trillion, a figure that made it the first listed company to reach that level according to widely reported market data at the time.
The IPO is often compared with Alibaba’s 2014 New York listing, which had previously held the record for the largest IPO. Saudi Aramco later increased the size of its offering through an overallotment option, lifting the total proceeds above the initial figure.